Cheapstaprint

Cheapstaprint: Instaprint for Everyone

We wanted to collect the Instagram feeds of our Seattle and London offices in one place. But then we thought printing them out would be so much cooler. We think we were right. So we made Cheapstaprint.

Why Cheapstaprint? Because this prototype cost us under $100 to build, and other methods for automatically printing Instagram photos were really expensive (albeit awesome, props to Instaprint by Breakfast). Cheapstaprint’s not a product you buy. It’s a piece of code that works with any printer on your network. The code listens to Instagram for new photos tagged at locations or with hashtags defined by you. It then pulls those photos and adds customized logos to the bottom. These new images are then shuffled off to whatever printer you specify and print out with the Instagram user and the date at the top. Beautiful. In our case, we’re using the Seattle and London Creature logos and have them printing out of a painted cigar box from a Polaroid Pogo so we can have stickers in the office.

We think everyone should be printing their instagrams. So you can download the code here from Github for free. This code …

• Can customize any #tags or @locations
• Can be used with any printer
• Can print to stickers or regular paper
• Can easily customize the bottom logo for different tags or locations
• Can easily output to web for event display

We’ll be making updates over time, but we want you to play with it. Make your own Cheapstaprinter. Find new uses for it. Put a printer in a dollhouse and have it print out all pictures tagged “dolls”. Project the pictures taken in a building onto the side of the building as they’re posted. Spit out stickers of beards from a mannequin of Babe-raham Lincoln. Go nuts. Our next version of Cheapstrapint will come with code for a Raspberry Pi and easy instructions on building your own. That way, you can build our version, stand-alone, for under $100. What will you do with it?

If you have any questions, drop us a line at brandonw@creature-us.com.

Comments

[Kamboni]

Is there a step by step on using the Code or set-up? (not very good with code/coding/codes)

Thank you

[Sam Gorman]

Yeah is there a tutorial because this looks awesome. Also how is the Raspberry Pi version going?

[Matt]

I would also like some more info on setting up the code. really great idea and project. I would love to have this working in my place.

[Josh]

Would love some instructions as well - just got a Pogo printer and want to set this up.

Images go to my drop box, just need to know how to activate the code etc

[Esther]

This looks amazing. Just purchased a polaroid pogo. How do you to input the code to work? Instructions please! (:

[Miah]

I set the Raspberry Pi to be a webserver and mounted a 8GB USB flash drive to it.

I am able to get to the cheapinstaprint-master from a browser but get errors when i process a tag.

I also got a CLIENT ID from api.instagram.com.

I am just randomly trying different things to get it to work. Do you have instructions or can point us to the right direction.

[Brandon]

thanks for the responses! I think I have replied to most of the comments directly but am also happy to announce we are working hard on the next version that looks to simplify the process to a few easy steps. thanks for your patience and I'm stoked to hear about what you guys are making :-).

[Turner]

Any eta on the new kit with the rasberry pi and easier instructions? I would love to get started on this right away!

[Dan]

Hi guys, I have a similar question to several of the other posts above. Is there a step by step guide for using the code?

I have some background in HTML/CSS, but pretty new to the backend languages like PHP.

Thanks for any guidance.

[Carlos]

Hi guys, great job thk for the amazing idea,I have a the same question of the other posts above. Is there a step by step guide for using the code?

Thanks for the help in advance, and again great idea.

[Shannon]

This is an awesome! Is there a way to put instagram caption, comments and likes at the bottom of the generated picture instead of a logo? I've somehow managed to get this to work for me, but I'm a noob at changing anything. :)